Diane Abbott forced to apologise in racism row after claiming 'White people love playing divide and rule’

Diane Abbott, Labour’s shadow health minister, has faced calls to resign after
claiming that white people “love to divide and rule”.

By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent, and Matthew Holehouse

11:27PM GMT 05 Jan 2012

Miss Abbott was engulfed by criticism from political opponents who said her remarks were “racist” and would never have been tolerated had they been made about black people.

Initially, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington refused to say sorry for her comments, which she claimed had been taken “out of context” and interpreted “maliciously”.

However, after a “difficult” phone call with her party leader, Ed Miliband, Labour headquarters issued a statement in which Miss Abbott apologised “for any offence caused”.

Miss Abbott, the first black female MP in the Commons, made her comments in response to a commentator who said she disliked the “lazy” and “monolithic” use of the term “black community” during coverage of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial.

Bim Adewunmi, a freelance journalist, wrote on Twitter that she found many black “leaders” shown in the media to be out of touch with the people they purported to represent.

Miss Abbott responded to say the comments were “playing into a 'divide and rule’ agenda” that is as “old as colonialism”. She said black people should not “wash dirty linen in public”.

In her most inflammatory message, posted after midnight, she added: “White people love playing 'divide & rule’. We should not play their game,” appending the reference tag: “tacticasoldascolonialism”.

Miss Abbott faced a barrage of criticism on Twitter and the airwaves. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, called on her to explain herself. “I think what Diane Abbott said was just stupid and crass generalisation,” he said.

Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative MP, called on Miss Abbott to step down.

“A healthy society should not tolerate any form of racism. DAbbott should apologise and resign or Ed M must sack her,” he wrote on Twitter.

Miss Abbott was rebuked by Mr Miliband during a telephone call, which she took while being interviewed on Sky News.

During the interview, she was sticking to her earlier line that her remark had been taken out of context.

However, she broke off to answer the call from her boss. In a statement issued shortly afterwards from Labour headquarters, Miss Abbott apologised.

“I understand people have interpreted my comments as making generalisations about white people. I do not believe in doing that,” she said.

“I apologise for any offence caused.”

Abbott takes a phone call while being interviewed about her comments on Sky News

A Labour Party spokesman said: “We disagree with Diane’s tweet. It is wrong to make sweeping generalisations about any race, creed, or culture. The Labour Party has always campaigned against such behaviour – and so has Diane Abbott.”

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said Mr Miliband had told Miss Abbott directly that the remark was unacceptable “in no uncertain terms”.

He said people would not “seriously think Diane is a racist” because she had campaigned against prejudice “over many years”.

Miss Abbott’s blunder is only the latest gaffe for the MP, who emerged as a surprise early rival to Mr Miliband for the Labour leadership after the general election in 2010.

Despite winning applause for her work with disadvantaged black children over many years, Miss Abbott has been at the centre of race rows before.

She described Mr Clegg and David Cameron as “two posh white boys from the Home Counties” during the Labour leadership contest, leading to “race” row comments at the time.

She had previously attacked the party rules for leadership candidates as being drawn from “the narrowest gene pool in history”, claiming that even Barack Obama would not have been allowed to run under similar restrictions.